The way the parah adumah, which gives purity to the Jewish people after they became impure, is prepared is that it is led to Har HaZeitim, which is to the east of Yerushalayim. A special pit is prepared there, and the parah adumah is burned in that spot. The shechitah (slaughter) happens first, and then the burning right afterward. If it was burned in a different spot, the parah adumah is not considered valid.
We've been talking in the previous Perakim (chapters) about how korbanot (offerings) have to be slaughtered properly in the Beit HaMikdash and offered up over there, and about the prohibition of slaughtering or offering up on the Mizbeach (altar) outside the courtyard of the Beit HaMikdash. So obviously, when the parah adumah is being slaughtered outside the Beit HaMikdash, it's not considered valid. It's not considered to be a problem, because that's where it's supposed to be. The question in this Mishnah is going to be whether the korban (offering), the parah adumah, is considered invalid if it was offered in another place.
We're also going to mention the se'ir hamishtale'ach. On Yom Kippur, there were two goats brought to the courtyard of the Beit HaMikdash. One was brought as a regular korban chatat (sin offering), while the other was a se'ir hamishtale'ach. It was sent away to a cliff, to Azazel, and pushed down. The question over there is also whether someone who took that goat, which was sent away, and offered it up as a korban outside is liable for doing something wrong.
The Mishnah says, “Somebody burned a parah adumah outside of its pit.” And if they offered up a se'ir hamishtale'ach, the goat of Yom Kippur that was sent away, outside, even though it wasn't supposed to be killed that way and was supposed to be thrown off a cliff, we say patur, they're not liable for the sin of offering up these two animals in the improper spots.
They're not liable because the Pasuk (verse) in the Torah says that one is liable only if he offered the korban outside and didn't bring it to the entrance of the Ohel Moed, which is the courtyard. This implies that the Torah is telling us that, when we discuss a person who brought a korban outside in a problematic way, the topic—the subject we're talking about—is only a case where he was supposed to offer it inside. So he offered it outside instead of bringing it into the courtyard, like he was supposed to. But whatever is not fit and meant to come to the entrance of the Ohel Moed, one is not liable for offering it up outside.
And that's what we mean over here. The parah adumah and the se'ir la'Azazel (goat for Azazel) are not meant to be offered inside the Ohel Moed. So this topic, this whole entire idea of offering up and slaughtering outside, is not problematic when it comes to them.